Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 38
December 23, 2022
Author Robert Rivenbark on Born to Talk Radio with Marsha Wietecha!
Robert.
To begin with, Robert Rivenbark discovered he was a natural writer in the sixth grade. His homeroom and English teacher, Mrs. Lee, elected him as Program Chairman in their class elections. He became the class playwright and short story writer. He read his stories to his classmates and wrote and directed plays inspired by his favorite sci-fi and horror movies and books.
Writing is in his blood. Robert earned a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Antioch University. As a result, of that degree, he received a full academic scholarship to study for two years in Oxford and London, based on his winning short story collection.
Robert will tell you he has a relentless work ethic. He takes writing seriously. Consequently, he adopted a “Failure is not an option” attitude.
Speculative Fiction.What is speculative fiction? According to Robert, speculative fiction draws on science and technology, as in hard and soft science fiction. There can be fantasy elements, too. Therefore, the distinction between speculative, science fiction, and fantasy can merge. Whatever the setting, the stories in this genre are driven by curiosity and the possibilities of what could be. As a result, the stories have endless possibilities. Enter, the speculative fiction novel, The Cloud, written by Robert.
The Cloud.
The Cloud is the first novel in The Cloud trilogy. It’s also in development as a film or series with producer/literary manager Kenneth Atchity of Atchity Productions and Story Merchant. “When Everyone’s a Virtual Reality Slave, Who can Free the Human Soul?”
“The Cloud” is a terrifying vision of a possible future I hope we can avoid. It’s a cautionary tale with sexy, suspenseful thriller elements that will keep you turning pages, hoping for the hard-won redemption of the male and female protagonists, who face near-impossible odds.”
Robert’s Takeaways.
“What I hope listeners take away is that my novel The Cloud expresses their fears, anxieties, challenges, and hopes for healing and transcendence in a deeply flawed world. I’ve dramatized a possible future I hope we can avoid, based on research into what’s already happening. I hope my characters’ struggles will wildly entertain and stimulate a thoughtful, cathartic response that provokes discussion, debate, and insight.”
In Closing.Are you curious? What happens in this Virtual Reality thriller?
Robert’s personality is contagious and that makes him an excellent storyteller!
He is a citizen of the world.
*
December 21, 2022
How to Manage Work and Time
Have a listen: Ken Atchity on WillCast Podcast Hosted by Patrick Will
Ken and Patrick discuss how to manage time better, what it means to be a real artist, and why The Meg took 22 years to make.
Listen to the Full Episode
December 19, 2022
#FREE December 19 - December 23! Write: Why? Marketing for Writers
A clear and concise and is a blueprint for successful marketing.
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
What they're saying about Why? Marketing for Writers
Straight to what's real!
There are hundreds (or thousands) of how-to books for writers, this book cuts through the chaff and get's down to what's real. Why we write, why we want to communicate. It helped me - as a writer - get down to the core of who I am, why I write, and it connected me with my deeper purpose. Best of all? It's practical and it's real - not one of the all too common airy fairy, new age, get in touch with your emotions and discover your unconscious forces. NO, this is practical, sound advice that made sense to me and helped me connect and clarify my why - Why I do the things I do, and what I am here to contribute. In short, it connected me with my true purpose, with my true calling and it gave me practical advice about sharing it effectively - so other's pay attention. As a ghost writer of 5 titles, this book has inspired me to publish under my own name. (Truthfully, I had always felt there was nothing else I could contribute). This book and the teachings it instills - showed me different!
Thank You! Ken and Ridgely
A great easy read
While this book is primarily geared toward writers, I found it to be a great blue print for anyone--regardless what industry or profession--who needs help navigating that social media slippery slope. An excellent primer for those like me who have for the most part avoided it because it seems so overwhelmingly intimidating. But so packed full of tips and strategies that I'm sure even the most social media savvy can learn something new that can be applied to their business.
#FREE December 19 - December 13! Write: Why? Marketing for Writers
A clear and concise and is a blueprint for successful marketing.
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
What they're saying about Why? Marketing for Writers
Straight to what's real!
There are hundreds (or thousands) of how-to books for writers, this book cuts through the chaff and get's down to what's real. Why we write, why we want to communicate. It helped me - as a writer - get down to the core of who I am, why I write, and it connected me with my deeper purpose. Best of all? It's practical and it's real - not one of the all too common airy fairy, new age, get in touch with your emotions and discover your unconscious forces. NO, this is practical, sound advice that made sense to me and helped me connect and clarify my why - Why I do the things I do, and what I am here to contribute. In short, it connected me with my true purpose, with my true calling and it gave me practical advice about sharing it effectively - so other's pay attention. As a ghost writer of 5 titles, this book has inspired me to publish under my own name. (Truthfully, I had always felt there was nothing else I could contribute). This book and the teachings it instills - showed me different!
Thank You! Ken and Ridgely
A great easy read
While this book is primarily geared toward writers, I found it to be a great blue print for anyone--regardless what industry or profession--who needs help navigating that social media slippery slope. An excellent primer for those like me who have for the most part avoided it because it seems so overwhelmingly intimidating. But so packed full of tips and strategies that I'm sure even the most social media savvy can learn something new that can be applied to their business.
December 16, 2022
Dr. Ken Atchity Discusses the Creative Process with Patrick Will
Listen to more of Willcast Interviews
Dr. Ken Atchity on WillCast Hosted by Patrick Will
Listen to more of Willcast Interviews
December 12, 2022
December 7, 2022
NEW From Story Merchant Books: The Sava Steps by Lee Lindauer
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
Twenty-five years after the Srebrenica Massacre, the worst genocide in Europe since World War II, survivor Melika Žbanić encounters two vicious men from her past. Intent on revenge, her plans are derailed by disgraced FBI agent Thorne Hightower, who has personal reasons to involve himself in her affairs.
Melika escapes Hightower’s pursuit only to be kidnapped and taken somewhere in the Balkans where a grim fate looms. With the clock ticking, a persistent Hightower follows clues to her whereabouts—and by chance meets Melika’s daughter Valery, a physically impaired but gifted young woman determined to confront her own existence—and soft-spoken Victor Alvarez, whose sole purpose in life is to keep his wife alive. Amid the splendor of a desolate mountaintop nouveau riche hotel, they find themselves locked on an emotional collision course between brutality, and the GIFT OF LIFE.
December 5, 2022
New From The Associated Press! Revisiting Dennis Palumbo's “My Favorite Year!"
My Favorite Year,’ comic salute to TV’s golden age, hits 40
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Peter O’Toole was famed for his commanding, Oscar-nominated turns. Mark Linn-Baker was a fledgling stage actor. Richard Benjamin, who’d made a leading-man splash in “Goodbye, Columbus” and “Westworld,” had a few TV directing credits.
The sum of these unlikely parts was the zesty 1982 movie comedy “My Favorite Year,” starring O’Toole and Linn-Baker, directed by Benjamin and produced by Mel Brooks. It paid loving tribute to the original golden age of TV in the mid-20th century and the variety shows that were the “Saturday Night Live” hits of their day.
When Benjamin read the screenplay credited to Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo, he immediately turned to his wife, actor Paula Prentiss.
“I hope they want me for this, because it’s just great,” Benjamin recalled saying.
The film, marking its 40th anniversary, is set in 1954 and topped by O’Toole as faded but still-glam movie idol Alan Swann, who’s appearing on “Comedy Cavalcade” only to pay off his IRS debt. Linn-Baker plays Benjy Stone, an energetic young writer tasked with keeping Swann out of trouble (read: sober) until the broadcast.
The inspirations for “My Favorite Year” included Sid Caesar, the decade’s reigning TV comedy star, and “Your Show of Shows,” the hit he topped from 1950-54 and was followed by “Caesar’s Hour.” The movie also is infused with the spirit of Errol Flynn’s swashbuckling films such as “Captain Blood,” with Swann’s “Captain from Tortuga” seen in a faux clip.
Brooks, who wrote for “Your Show of Shows” alongside another future giant of stage and screen, Neil Simon, said in his 2021 memoir “All About Me!” that the movie represented “my love letter to Sid Caesar and the early days of television, and it was also a damn good story.”
“It’s one of the three best productions about live TV that I’ve ever seen,” said David Bianculli, a TV critic for NPR’s “Fresh Air” and author of “Dictionary of Teleliteracy.” His other top picks: “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and Simon’s play “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.”
“My Favorite Year,” which is available on streaming services, had a respectable box office opening in October 1982, coming in third behind “An Officer and a Gentlemen” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”
November 30, 2022
The Hollywood Conveyor Belt
The Conveyor Belt
Imagine a magical conveyor belt in the sky that carries every story that’s heading for the screen. Your goal is to somehow get your story from the back of the belt, where “naked stories” lie, to the very front of the belt where fully-clothed stories are about to leap into “principal photography.”
What do the fully-clothed stories at the “stardust point” of the conveyor belt look like? At the very least, they have
A perfected script that has been vetted numerous times by dozens of highly-critical technical and creative industry readers, and rewritten accordingly. It’s not unusual for a script to have gone through twenty or more revisions.A finalized (and “bonded”!) budget that has undergone even more revisions than the script.A “start date” agreed upon by all parties to the filming.A location that works for the best interests of the film.A solid legal foundation that provides contracts for everything from the “underlying rights” to the services to be provided by every member of the cast and every member of the crew.A director who understands the story enough to “enhance the flame” created by the screenwriter (who enhanced the flame the original storyteller created), and who the financers and “completion bond” executives trust to deliver a completed film.A committed cast suitable not only to the script, but also to the distributors, sales agents, and finance representatives.An international sales agent who has agreed with the producers on selling the completed film to every possible market.A “domestic distributor” who has shown interest in distributing the film in the United States and Canada.By contrast, stories at the far end of the conveyor belt lack any or all of these elements, the farthest from stardust being, in this approximate order,
a “great idea for a film,”a written “pitch,”a book (fiction or nonfiction),other source material (like a magazine article, or life rights),a “treatment,”a stage play, or first draft screenplay.They aren’t ready to be filmed until they gather all the other necessary elements.
One of the nearly infinite “Catch 22s” of show business is that every story on the conveyor belt risks being leapfrogged over by a story that has more of the necessary elements. No wonder it takes forever to make a film. I recently saw a film into production that I’d been working on for twenty years. It sold to networks twice, but always got stopped along the way by “regime change” or “policy change.”
